Rescue Method for Vehicle Routing Problem under Vehicle Disruptions

Vehicle routing problem under disruptions is an important and difficult problem in the area of logistics. When a disruption event happens during the execution process of initial scheduling plan, actions should be taken immediately in order to provide timely services for un-served customers of disrupted vehicles. The earlier the disruption event is dealt with, the better that services are supplied. Focusing on the vehicle routing problem under vehicle disruptions, a rescue method for un-served customers of disrupted vehicle is presented in this paper, along with a disruption measurement method. The rescue method assigns un-served customers of disrupted vehicle to un-disrupted vehicles based on their rescue possibilities. Finally, the rescue method are implemented into software system and tested on Solomon´s benchmark cases. Computing results show the feasibility and validity of the rescue method.